Tag Archives: saga

Been having too many characters in my first two books that it was necessary for me to keep proper track of them via a dramatis personae (somewhat like a character appendix). In my third book, which I started preparing for, the new story revolves around a military unit composed of ten individuals. Because of the large number of main characters I decided to prepare their history and characters more thoroughly than I used to before.

The process which I thought would be tedious due to research was, actually, rather interesting. I spent the better part of yesterday researching and basing each of my characters’ personalities on historical or mythological individuals. I also used the big five theory of personality to help me plan their tendencies based on the roles they hold within this unit.

The process started with me just using one of the concepts I came up with in while writing my first book and expanding on it, the unit of ten. Then, I made a list of all the skills necessary for the survival of the group throughout their journey and divided them across the members. Once I was done with the skills, I looked up the names based on their roles; researching historical and mythological figures. Following the naming, I fine tuned the skills to match with the figures; if sufficient information was found by my research. The final step was to add some kinks and twists to each character to make them unique. For example, the leader has this thing with his hair where he stresses to keep it properly combed all the time.

When I was done, I found myself staring at a document of 5,000 words where my characters were described in some detail. Next step for me is to prepare the outline. However, instead of preparing the outline for the entire story, I will be writing a more detailed outline for each chapter or story section one at a time because of a phenomenon I observed while writing my second story. When I was working on my second story, where I decided to prepare an outline before writing it, I spent a day preparing the outline of the story to keep the flow of the events as smooth as possible. Although the events were far more thought out than the first book and the chapters flowed smoothly, I found myself unexcited about writing midway the book; I have simply lost the excitement of writing a new book due to my preparation. In order to prevent this issue, the new book will be prepared chapter by chapter prior to me writing it – hopefully the plot would still flow smoothly.

Just as I was wondering how to continue writing through the lack of motivation to do so, life gave me a break.

For the next few days, I will be unable to work on my second book due to work – which is not a bad thing. Now I have the chance to get immersed in something else that, can potentially, help me generate ideas.

(6 Hours Later)

Yet found the time to write a chapter (1k words). My brain has a terrible sense of timing, inspiring me at the times I don’t need it and slacking off when I do.

After going through the finished chapters of my second book, I noticed that I forgot most of what I wrote. Interesting enough, my work grants me insight about myself. It is like I am getting to know who I am.

Today has been a difficult writing day for me, not because I don’t know what to write, but because I don’t feel like writing. Trying to force myself through the 2k words I promised myself to write every day, hoping it won’t affect the quality of my work.

Yesterday was a big dissapointment in terms of writing, however, I did get to work on my artwork for the first book.

I noticed two interesting things as I worked on my new hobby. The first is that I get affected by the most recent book I read, in terms of style of writing.

I also noticed that while writing I get way too many ideas. Currently, I am at a phase where I have the next two books planned in terms of concept, setting and idea – refraining from writing an outline so I can focus on my current project.

I am currently 8 days into my ‘leave it alone phase’ for my first book. The purpose of this phase is to forget about your book so that when you read it again you perceive it differently – and hopefully more objectively.

Not knowing what else to do, after all the researching, I decided to start on the second volume of my story. So far I prepared my outline and wrote 7k words. Hope this book will take me enough time to write to finish my 30 days of ‘le laisser’.

So, I finally decided to actively pursue a hobby. After a long time of thinking and planning, I decided that writing was the most practical hobby that I liked. It took me a month to finish the first draft of my first book titled ‘Book of Kayal – Rise from Exile’. This is the first volume of a saga, which I intend to finish as I learn more about my new hobby.

The hardest part about starting to write a book is coming up with an idea. Once you have a message to convey, it feels that your fingers can’t type fast enough, and there is too much to say.

As soon as I finished the first draft, of about 80k words, I thought that my work was complete. However, I was so terribly wrong, my work was just beginning. In an attempt to learn more about writing, I will be actively trying out new techniques to improve my process. During the time of my learning, I will be documenting the major aspects of learning, as well as the process, in this blog.

Some of my posts will serve as a public journal, one which anyone is welcomed to read and comment on.

Here is the preview of my first book. https://www.createspace.com/pub/community/give.review.do?id=1113694